73 for July

July this year saw a further improvement on June with 73 fish landed for the month as opposed to 55 in June. It was also a vast improvement on last year, with good numbers of fish running throughout the month. Having said that despite good fishing conditions throughout, one would have expected to catch more fish at times. A lot of the time fish were difficult to tempt and this made angling frustrating at times. I suppose that’s why it’s called fishing and not catching! Rainfall was well up, with 223.1mms (8.78”). Only March had more rainfall so far this year.

Water levels were low to begin with the gauge at 15. Having said that there were still fish running. Fredo Dittrich finished off a long standing German week with two grilse off Finlough on the 1st. Brian Fisher, Giovanni Mazzoleni, Claude Chardonnet and Michel Valuet all had fish off the river on the 2nd. We had heavy rain on the Monday night with 26.3mms, which put the river up to 60. Tod Sarkela from the US managed to land his first ever salmon, of approx. 5lbs from the Turn Pool. Amy Bondurant from the US also managed to land her first ever, a fine fish of approx. 10lbs off Doolough. There were 17 in total for the week, with Giovanni Mazzoleni from Italy having six. Others to catch included Brian Hope, David Lennon, Howard Rubin, Mike Shortt and Mark Corps.

In week 28 water levels varied from 15 to 40, which is more than enough for fish to run. The week proved frustrating with only ten fish landed. It was generally slow with only four landed between Sunday and Friday and then six on Saturday. Marcelo Hunfan, Werner Fasching, Dermot O’Farrell and Ian Morrison all had fish through the week. We got 13.1mms of rain on the Friday night and once again fishing picked up with six on the Saturday. Charles Finch and Michael Righton had two each, while Paul Wymes and Michael Van Mourik had one each.

Week 29 saw 23 fish landed. Water levels started at 25 dropped off to 13 by Thursday and hit 100 by Friday lunch time, after 67.4mms. Again when we got the high water we got fish, with 15 landed between Friday evening and Saturday evening. There were 8 during the week despite the presence of some hardened Delphi veterans. Once again Alan Boyd and Ken McMillan proved successful accounting for 9 of the total. George and Helen Westropp had one each and Brian Shaw also had one. Then on the Friday evening I landed one myself, while Alan and Ken had two each and the latter hitting five more. There were ten on the Saturday, with Paul Wymes managing six, Ash Mathews two, Teddy Coulter one and Brian O’Donohoe one.

Water levels for week 30 were ideal throughout, the lowest being 25 and the highest 65. There were twenty fish landed in total, with four Sunday, one Monday, one Tuesday, five Wednesday, three Thursday, five Friday and one Saturday. Bob Hadden had two, George Westropp two, Ralph Griffin two and Kirstyanna MacLeod two. Paul Smyth, Kurt Roth, Alexander Mills, Neil McGrath, David MacLeod and David Dunne all had one each; while Paul Wymes had four. Mary Claire Rodwell from England and Conor Nunnally from the US also landed their first ever salmon.

Our last fish of the month was taken by Rick Taylor, while holidaying from Oman. Rick had a nice fish of 4lbs from Cooleens on a Silver Stoat.

So far this month we have sixteen fish landed. There were six in week 31. The week was slow to start but then we had five on the 1st. Husband and wife team of Warren and Susan Osako managed three between them. Susan had a fine fish of 8lbs5ozs from the Turn Pool on a Willie Gunn and Warren had one from the Turn Pool of 4lbs6ozs on a Collie Dog and one from the Stream on Finlough of 3lbs8ozs also on a Collie Dog. William Beattie also had one from the Stream on Finlough of 3lbs4ozs on a Galway Green. Joe Kelly had a nice fresh grilse of 4lbs1oz off the Whin Pool on a Willie Gunn. William Beattie fini8shed off the week with one from the Whin Pool on the 2nd of 3lbs7ozs on a Bann Special.

So far week 32 has proved more productive with ten landed. Urs got off to a flyer, with two on the 6th. The first was from the Road Pool of 5lbs2ozs on a Neighbours Cat nymph and the second of 4lbs2ozs from the Meadow Pool on an Allie Shrimp. John Coulter also had one on the 6th of 1lb6ozs (not our record, I think I hold that) on the Stream on Finlough on a Cascade. William Beattie and Urs again had one each on the 7th, of 5lbs8ozs from Gough’s Bay on a Willie Gunn and approx. 2lbs from the Holly Pool on a Silver Stoat respectively. On the 9th William Beattie managed two off Finlough, one from Wrens Bay of 4lbs8ozs on a Cascade and one from Gough’s of 4lbs13ozs on a Willie Gunn. On the 10th Gareth Beattie got off the mark with a nice fresh fish of 4lbs12ozs from the Grilse Pool on a Cascade. Yesterday Urs had one of approx. 4lbs from the Whin Pool on a Cascade while William Beattie finished his stay with one from Sligo Bay on Fin of 2lbs9ozs on a Cascade.

This morning the river is at 30, so conditions will be ideal for a few days and judging by the longrange forecast there’s no heat wave on the way so there’s no excuses if the fish oblige! D.McEvoy